coming up on our t.v. it's election day twenty thirteen here in the u.s. and from new york city to miami beach unconventional candidates are shaking up the usual red versus blue politics in-depth coverage of today's elections just ahead and in washington state there's a major vote on labeling jim o. foods if the initiative passes it would force biotech manufacturers to disclose the use of genetically modified crops more on a vote for greater transparency coming up. and out in colorado there's an initiative to divide the state eleven counties the northeast colorado will vote on whether or not to secede so what are the chances of a fifty first state to tell you more later in the show.

it's tuesday november fifth five pm in washington d.c. i'm same sex and you're watching r.t. and we begin with election day twenty thirteen that's right political junkies around the country can rejoice because big name elections are just reserved for even numbered years they happen on the odd numbered years too so let's take a look at the map in new jersey and in virginia voters head to the polls to elect a new governor and new york city detroit and miami beach a new mayor will be elected although we should put an asterisk on the detroit mayor all races will explain a little bit later in the show and there are some important ballot question is to be voted on in colorado and washington two states that made history last year when they legalized marijuana and are trying to make history again this year with a vote on secession and a vote to require g.m.o. labeling now we're going to bring you coverage of all these issues throughout the show but we begin with the big races in our. r t team of correspondents position

the up and down the east coast with meghan lopez in virginia on a stasia churkin in new york and perry and boring in miami florida all right let's get to it megan i want to start with you in virginia what is the landscape like in that state we've got democrat terry mcauliffe leading republican ken cuccinelli in the governor race it's been a battleground state in the past plus there's a libertarian candidate in the mix here too how is all this likely to shake out tonight in the governor's race. well sound this election had all the elements and needed to boil up to be a really important really exciting on election however critics are saying that it is one of the most boring elections in virginia history with truly most sub par candidates to ever run for the virginia governor's office so there was a lot of political scandal that they had all those elements however it's just not boiling out you know virginia is a little bit different than some of the other elections that we're seeing happen now and play out around the country and the reason is that it is really just

a stone's throw away from washington d.c. so a lot of those federal issues actually affect the reactions of voters and the way that the voter swings in this state now a couple of those issues that are affecting voters these days first of all a sea quest for a shed there is a very high number of military personnel living in virginia with the pentagon and whatnot and the various military installations so that could obviously play a big role in how they vote another issue that's really playing a big role in the government shutdown that lasted sixteen days so republicans were mainly blamed for the government shutdown which quoted in fact sway the vote against ken cuccinelli the republican tea party candidate here however on the other end of the spectrum the obamacare affordable care act rollout was disastrous to say the least so that could in fact play out against terry mcauliffe particularly considering the fact that ken cuccinelli was the first attorney general to sue the

obama administration for the affordable care act however that was dismissed now another issue that's really playing into the virginia elections is obviously money this is shaping up to be one of the most expensive elections in virginia is history ken cuccinelli has about ninety million dollars of his war chest so to speak and terry mcauliffe has raised twice that with thirty four million dollars and a lot of those as a lot of that money is actually being. on attack ads but despite all of this one person is actually rising up and that is rob sarvis he is the libertarian candidate the third party candidate on the ballots right now he was raised less than three hundred thousand dollars but the spite that he has been polling throughout this election cycle that about eight to ten percent so obviously it could be showing this could be a litmus test for the fact that people are fed up with the two party system well let's talk more about this third party candidate the libertarian robert sarvis you said that the republican and democratic candidates are sub par what's the third

party candidate mr service hoping to accomplish today. you know ron sarvis is very realistic about his prospects of winning this election obviously you cannot win this election with a ten percent vote however he is still very optimistic in trying to reach that ten percent mark and this is why it is important because in virginia the election code if you reach ten percent of the previous election your party's name is guaranteed on the next election ballot so his name his party the libertarian name if you reach that ten percent will be guaranteed through twenty twenty one at least so obviously if this could be monumental for third party candidate now in order to garner that ten percent he's going to need about two hundred fifty thousand votes there's eight million voters in for genuine eight million residents anyway and the associated press is projecting that forty percent of people will actually turn out so he's

going to need to garner a good amount of thing a good amount of votes however the other thing to mention about the monumental importance of this ten percent is that he will be allowed to be included in the debate so it means in the future libertarian candidates will have more face time and they don't have to spend that time that they have to spend in the beginning petitioning to get their name on the primarily the primary ballots for the election certainly would be helpful for third party candidates let's shift gears here and go to new york city where out of. it's covering the mayor all race there we have democratic candidate bill de blasio is expected to be republican joe lhota in a landslide and not only does he look set to become the first democratic mayor in over twelve years in new york he also seems to be an anti bloomberg type politician you know he's he's kids go to public school what does this tell us about the changing political landscape in new york and people's moods in general in that city . well assam i think what that's telling us is that after twelve years of mayor

bloomberg new york city is ready for some change because you know we have to keep in mind that move bloomberg has been being one of the richest men in the united states has been pretty consistent in terms of his support for wall street we've seen a huge gap in wealth inequality come out in the recent years in the in new york city and all of these issues new yorkers seem to be ready to have tackled and certainly this candidate democrat bill de blasio seems to be at least for now the person officially saying that look if you guys elect me i want to tax the rich i want to put an end to the controversial stop and frisk policy i want to be able to make this enormous gap between the rich and poor in new york city much lower and try to eradicated find affordable housing for so many people in new york city that need it and certainly these are all issues that resonate with new yorkers these days and it seems that they explain exactly why he is expected to win in this landslide

election and curiously we cannot not point out that these are all issues that were brought to the limelight back after the financial crisis of two thousand and eight specifically underlined by the occupy wall street movement and this particular candidate is now seems to be voicing these concern concerns of the sort of over ninety percent ninety nine percent versus the one percent that have been suffering for all these years in new york city specifically but it's interesting because we finally have a candidate speaking to the occupy movement but this is in the city where many years have been very cozy with wall street so how can policies of taxing the rich and doing something about wealth inequality how realistic is it that they can be implemented here. well sam that is the real question you know because we've certainly seen many politicians in the u.s. over the years promising certain changes and not really following up on those promises so that's something that a political reality that we're going to see in the time after this election but

certainly it's going to be a battle wall street you know does have a huge impact and is used to having this very cozy relationship with the mayor of new york city so if this fight actually does continue when his priorities don't shift it really looks like you know it's going to be quite a battle here in new york city but it's not just you know wall street also the controversial stop and frisk policy that has been supported in courts of appeals recently so it just really is going to be a question of how much is he willing to stick to the things he's promised and really follow up on these changes that new yorkers are electing him for right role we'll have to see on that or let's go down to miami beach where boring is covering the mayoral election which is probably one of more entertaining races in the country it's a nonpartisan election which is made for a fairly colorful field of candidates can you give us an idea of some of the characters down there period. yeah it's extremely interesting for one we have

philip levine he is a millionaire he is the c.e.o. of royal media partners and he has spent one point five million dollars of his own money to fund his campaign for a position that only pays about ten thousand dollars he has hired it the best people money can buy to run his campaign he even got a former president. former us president bill clinton to come down to miami and support him so he's running against a character named steve burger he is quite the character he's entertainer he retired from comedy he's also a former pro tennis player he's thirty two years old he graduated from yale and his platform is on government transparency he wants to open up the books at city hall he also wants to criminalize marijuana and he wants to attack the issue of police brutality one of the major issues that has caused national headlines here and miami

beach well i want to talk more about steve burke you've highlighted a number over the last few days as you mentioned he's kind of got this unconventional past for a politician former tennis player former comedian is running on a platform like legalizing marijuana is the currently the subject of an m.t.v. two film crew during this whole race can he actually win and how would his tactics prove an unconventional but effective down there in that miami beach may or race. well he is tied in the polls with levine even though levine has outspent him nearly one hundred to one so he does have a good chance and he ran in two thousand and eleven for the first time and he got thirty percent of the vote then so today is going to be you know very interesting to see exactly how this. up with some of his nontraditional tactics of reaching voters has been through comedy which has proven to be extremely successful for him he has these you tube videos that have gotten millions and millions of hits on them have twenty five fifty million hits young people from all across the country are

listening to his message and he's gotten the attention of m.t.v. too and m.t.v. too has been following him around for the past several months and they're making an entire documentary on this campaign so whether or not he wins today or not he still has been extremely successful and has brought so much attention to his cause or a whole lot going around the country this election day those are t. correspondents megan lopez and virginia honest as you turn to new york and boring in miami florida we'll check in with all of you around eight pm when the polls start closing. meanwhile in detroit voters are heading to the polls to select a new mayor but it's an election unlike any in the city's history and only with the expected winner might do given be the first white mayor in the city since one thousand nine hundred eighty four but also right now detroit is not even under the control of its mayor or locally elected representatives but instead under the control of a financial manager appointed by governor rick snyder who's in charge of managing

the city's descent into bankruptcy so the winner of today's mayoral election well very little power instead he will work under emergency financial manager kevyn orr who has full powers over the city's budget meaning the new mayor will have to get orders approval on any new spend it while both candidates running for mayor of detroit stand opposed to the financial manager in charge of their city neither they nor the voters have any power this election to remove him only governor rick snyder has that power and while snyder has refused to endorse either candidate for mayor he has supported his financial manager and insists the city of detroit will be under kevin or his control through the bankruptcy process so it's an election in name only in detroit today. now out to washington state where the g.m.o. industry finds itself another fight against transparency on the ballot there is an issue to five twenty two which requires companies to label foods that contain genetically modified ingredients washington state is trying to do it california

failed to do last year which has become the first state in the nation to pass g.m.o. labeling to believe that eighty percent of packaged foods in the united states contain g.m. most now this debate has attracted an enormous amount of money a lot coming from out of the state of washington so far supporters of g.m.o. labeling requirements have raised more than seven million dollars in their efforts mostly from thousands of individual donors but on the other side opponents of g.m.o. labeling mostly biotech companies like months. anto and dupont have raised three times as much more than twenty two million dollars and that cash influx has significantly move the polls survey of likely voters in september showed the labeling measure passing with two thirds of voters in support and twenty two percent against but now those numbers have narrowed with only forty six percent in favor and forty two percent opposed we saw

a similar poll shift in college california last november just before the g.m.o. labeling measure was defeated for more on this i was joined earlier by alexis spade and meyer political director at the organic consumers association and i asked what this initiative in washington would specifically do. well it gives us what ninety three percent of the public is demanding our right to know what's in our food our right to know if our food contains genetically modified organism it's very very important for consumers to be aware of this issue and unfortunately only about twenty six percent of the american public actually knows they're already eating g.m.o. foods but the american medical association came out recently and said that these g.m.o. foods should have been safety tested before we started eating them and they weren't the american academy of environmental medicine a doctor's organization not quite as powerful as the a.m.a. but still a great group lots of pediatricians there saying that they're seeing problems in

their patients now that they believe are related to dmoz these include include gastrointestinal problems allergies even autism may be linked to eating so beyond just the common sense here that people should have a right to know what they're eating there's also a whole medical dynamic here because this is definitely an unsettled question in science whether these foods are healthy or not for you you know i mentioned enormous amounts of money flowing in the. opponents of general labeling mostly because g.m.o. companies like monsanto and dupont have spent twenty thirty million dollars in this race to defeat it but did the same thing in california what's behind this why are they so adamantly opposed to something just as innocuous as labeling their products well i think it goes to that question of whether g.m.o. they're safe to eat if they're not safe to eat they've been feeding us poison essentially and they're not going to want to admit that the money is having a profound effect though i mean in i remember last year we die you want to talk

about this issue in california and the polls show that this was going to pass overwhelmingly and then monsanto into part of the rest i'm coming down tens of million dollars in the polls just suddenly shift like that you know what i just mention in the in the intro to that here that the polls are similar. overwhelmingly people supporting jimmy labeling all this money gets dumped in in the polls change why why is money having such a impact on this issue and could it be the supporters of j m a labeling are not doing the work they need to do to get the message out through this money is there more that they can be doing to compete against this morning well it's tough because the message on the no side hasn't been that the companies are opposed to consumers right to know they've been telling consumers that g.m.o. labels are fine but that this bill won't give the voters the labels that voters want the no side has focused on perceived to have probably made up exemptions and

loopholes that don't actually exist in the law and they also kind of focus on extra costs that will burn these companies us right so you take the cost of what it would cost for every company to take the g.m.o. ingredients out of their products and they say that's what it would cost to label the product labels are virtually cost less so most of the most of the money that's coming from the opposition side is is funneling misinformation base oh yeah this issue because they can't win by thing they don't support consumers right now and as a result of the citizens united and other elections that have allowed all this money to flow into these elections it's really hard to kind of speak through a lot of the misinformation that's coming out california tried to become the first state last year to to require g.m.o. labeling washington now is trying to become the first state to do it how important is it for that first state to break through what might we see on the national landscape once one state succeeds in passing jayma labeling could it have a ripple effect across the country oh yes already more than half of the states have introduced legislation to label t.m.

oath and we will see a wave of new legislation being passed all across the country if we win today in washington state and i guess that's why you see those entities staking ground in these states to make sure make sure that you're mobile in fails but we'll have to see what happens tonight alexis prayed in my. director there again it consumers' association thank you last year colorado voters made history joining washington voters and become the first states in the country to legalize marijuana well this year some colorado voters are trying to make history again by seceding and becoming a fifty first state artie's marina port i is in colorado with more. in a state of five point one million people democracy is failing the minority and a battle to break away has begun we're trying to address from a systemic issue within a country which is this rural versus urban divide eleven colorado counties approximately four hundred thousand citizens are voting on a ballot initiative that would pave the way for leaving the fifty first us state

the urban areas can assert their well against the rural communities and it is like taxation without representation and that the rural communities don't have a voice and things that are being forced upon them earlier this year colorado's democratically controlled legislature exerted its power by passing laws fiercely unpopular in the northeastern parts of the states among them. historic gun control laws and mandating only rural areas to produce twenty percent of their energy from renewable sources a move officials say will crush farmers and ranchers while also raising the cost of electricity urban legislators imposed one standard on rural colorado and exempted themselves out of that same standard for their urban constituents one might call that tyranny in my thirteen years plus of being a county commissioner i have never seen folks this frustrated this discontent this

feeling of this disenfranchise in addition to sending a message to lawmakers here in denver supporters of the fifty first state say their ballot initiative also serves as inspiration for the many other u.s. cities and states with their own secession movements i get fold calls on a regular basis. at least once a week from citizens in other states saying hey what are you guys doing out there how you doing this from vermont and north carolina to texas and california the u.s. has seen a rapid spine. consist session movements blazing across the nation in the past decade as the united states has grown extremely divided i hope that there's a recognition that a disconnect exists not just here in colorado but another states and that we need to begin to address that problem the problem of america's partisan politics extends

all the way up to the top of last month's dysfunctional stalemate in washington caused a sixteen day government shutdown the next step beyond this is going to be more than likely twenty fourteen zero statewide ballot initiative which everybody in the state would be able to vote at that point which would redraw the boundaries of the state of colorado however this coveted swing state can only be torn in two with the approval of u.s. congress a powerful legislative body known best for its own failure at reaching compromise very important i our team colorado from elections to activism in the u.k. today is known as guy fawkes day commemorating the guy who tried to blow up the british parliament on this day more than four hundred years ago thanks in part of the graphic novel and later movie v. for vendetta guy fawkes is visage has been a mortal eyes on masks masks that were frequently worn by members of the occupy movement and masks that have become the symbol of the internet hacktivist group known as anonymous well today anonymous called on millions around the world to turn

out to major landmarks as part of the million mask march against billionaire bankers and corporations who are corrupting politicians and perpetuating injustices around the world rallies took place in more than four hundred locations around the world including right here in washington d.c. and in los angeles that's where our tease ramon glinda has our report. sydney to seattle from london to here in los angeles and a stranger joining the guy fawkes mask are protesting against corruption around the world i am tired of the way things are going i'm tired i'm tired of the banking industry running our government our government no longer representing the people people are displeased with the status quo so you are. and then you educate. and then you organize activist link to the online activism movement anonymous helped organize this million mass march which is supposed to be taking place in dozens of

cities across the u.s. organizers proclaim that this event aims to help bring back fairness justice and freedom in the system my dad actually is going on seventy now and he can't retire any flat feel slaving away just to keep it just to keep trying to outflank what is right now live we were not able to help not at all we can even support our style that is children that is over there you know at the white house and you know they're getting arrested right now from genetically modified foods the federal reserve demonstrators here express many problems with the current culture of our politics and our corporate ajor they're hoping that their associates like this will awaken the public to many problems they're not commonly covered in the mainstream press in los angeles ramon not in the party. moving on don't do business with fat leonard that's the name given to a malaysian defense contractor at the center of a bribery scandal rocking the u.s. pentagon so here's the story a navy commander stands accused of passing along confidential ship routes which is

a major national security breach to leonard francis seen here or fat leonard who runs a defense contractor known as g d and now fat leonard to use this information to bilk the u.s. navy out of millions of dollars in fuel food and other services it's a ledge to his company defrauded the u.s. navy out of ten million dollars in just one year in thailand in return for the information fat leonard would hand out gifts or bribes including lady gaga tickets and prostitutes so far four people have been arrested including fat leonard and the navy commander selling secrets as well as another colleague of leonard's and a senior navy investigator who was keeping fat leonard informed of the invest. today sion the pentagon believes more people will likely be implicated in this massive bribery scheme. u.s. secretary of state john kerry is in poland it's there that he tried to ease

concerns from allies over the n.s.a. spying programs promising that a review of surveillance activities will strike the right balance between security and privacy we've heard a lot of talk lately about striking balances kerry also advised allies not to let n.s.a. revelations get in the way of trade deals between europe and the united states u.s. defense contractors are trying to get involved with a forty five billion dollar upgrade to an air base in central poland and talks are underway of a new and much broader e.u. u.s. trade deal that as a result of the n.s.a. leaks could get shaken up all this comes as new allegations are leveled at the u.k. spy agency g c h q a close partner of the n.s.a. over whether or not the brits are still spying on the germans artie's peter oliver has more. because of another the day and other case of allies spying on each other this time it's the turn of the british it seems these allegations in documents

leaked by edward snowden suggest that on the roof of the british embassy here in lindh there was a poll in the roof listening post now it's about the case it comes just a week after the united states had supposedly removed a listening post of their own on the roof of their embassy which is just next door to the british embassy here in the german capital now there is the argument that they spy yes this is what they do however it is certainly going to be repercussions from this if it turns out that it is true that the british had bass. at this what's being called an intercept nest on the roof of the embassy it's certainly going to be toxic for relations between germany and britain to close allies within europe and it also comes at a time when german it officials try and get some kind of agreement on not spying on each other so all of this information coming out it seems in

a relentless fashion showing that all of these people who held hands as friends around the world will secretly listening in to watch each other we're doing now it's been said that the e.u. has asked david cameron's british government for answers on this the british government have said well it's a matter of security and they don't comment on masses of security it all seems like a very easy answer to give put this in to be repercussions from mason it does seem that just because you're a little paranoid doesn't mean that everybody isn't buying on that was archies peer over berlin germany and fine with c.n.n. spent much of last week covering the problems with the health care doc gov website in the contentious hearing on capitol hill with health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius and all that coverage earned c.n.n. its lowest. weekly ratings of the year yep last week c.n.n. average three hundred eighty five thousand viewers put it not only behind us in

d.c. and fox but also behind headline news and c and d c but you can't blame cnn's editorial decision all the major cable news networks covered obamacare issues last week the only difference is republican and democrat partisans stuck to their own m s n b c and fox news camps to hunker down for the debate leaving c.n.n. behind without any viewers so what does this tell us well soon audiences which normally like watching hearings in trials just so long as there blockbuster murder trials like casey anthony jodi areas for george zimmerman just don't like the partisan political hearings interestingly simmonds best night of last week was on friday when it covered the shooting at los angeles international airport so you can bet c.n.n. is already gearing up for the trial of the l.a.x. shooter doesn't for now for more of the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website r t dot com slash usa you can follow me on

twitter at sam sachs see you back here i hate him it's. old. technology innovation all the developments around russia. that's you jerry. welcome to the kaiser report i am max kaiser remember remember it's yet again the fifth of november in banks there is a con man still rule it's been four hundred years that rebuilding sailed for a rope or rope was the last never held and for this reason trees those plots still .